A very powerful and emotion-filled gathering was held Wednesday at Kate Jackson Community Center. Proud homeowners who live along and contiguous to the Gasparilla Parade route told the audience in detail of the depravity, lawlessness, vulgarity and criminal activity that goes on while the colorful and popular parade passes by. It has become an anything-goes event where underage drinking, destruction of property and lewd behavior have become the norm.
Officials from the city, the parade organizers and police heard not only from residents, but also representatives from the University of Tampa and Tampa Prep. The consensus of the major problem was: alcohol, specifically the unbridled consumption from very early in the morning to the end of the day. Horror stories were reiterated as to what residents have to put up with from fencing and hiring police to protect their property to the damage to young people who are viewing this behavior.
Conclusion: The parade route must be moved to an urban area in Tampa (Dale Mabry, Kennedy, downtown). No longer can 1,200 police control 350,000 revelers in a residential neighborhood. There has got to be an end to this annual madness of mayhem on and around Bayshore.
TINKA DIEHL
Tampa
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